Disclaimer: I own nada.
“Do you know where you’re going?”
Pam looked over to her boyfriend in the passenger seat. “Yes, I do! And annoying me won’t get you the information, Jim.”
He laughed, bringing her free hand up to his lips. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry! You’re just making me nervous with this driving into the woods. You’re not planning to do away with me and hide my body, are you?”
She rolled her eyes, exasperated. “Yes, Jim. You’re onto me. As a matter of fact, I asked Dwight to draw a map for me so that no one can ever find your body.” A small frown marred her smooth forehead.
It was the first time she was able to plan anything for him since they had started dating three months ago. His upcoming birthday was the first special event they could celebrate together and she wanted to do something more than just a fancy dinner. After almost two hours without seeing the marker she was looking for, she considered the fact she should have been less creative and stuck to the dinner instead.
Jim, of course, had a retort against her droll reply. He bit the fingers he was holding earlier, making her yelp in surprise. “That’s not funny. You know he’d probably have something like that planned already.”
They had a mini tug-of-war in where she tried to pull her hand away but he held on to it, just holding it. She grinned at him and said, “You started it!”
A small sign on a fence post distracted her from what Jim was saying. She breathed a mental sigh of relief, knowing that their destination was not far. She briefly wondered if she should have asked him first before planning this birthday camping surprise. But then she thought with a rush of giddiness that she was now his girlfriend and was allowed to spring stuff like this on him.
A right turn led them onto a small unpaved road off the main one they were driving on. The windows had been down for the whole drive from Scranton. But it was only now that they felt they’d finally left the stifling heat of late summer in the city and able to breathe in the cooler air of the countryside.
Jim was now looking around them curiously. “Are we visiting a long-lost relative of yours?”
She shook her head gleefully. “Nope!”
Passing by a sign that marked the area they were heading into as a campground, Jim suddenly had a vague memory of having been here before. “We’re going camping?”
“Yep.” She looked so adorably pleased with herself that he wanted to place a smacking kiss right on her lips. It then occurred to him: as her boyfriend, there was no reason for him to not kiss her if he wanted to. Leaning over, he did exactly that.
“Hey, no distracting the driver.”
Within a few minutes, Pam pulled the car over into a space between two trees. They got out of the car, stretched their legs and finally looked at their campsite. In front of them was a flat and grassy area, perfect for setting the tent. Off to the left side was a picnic table with a small fire pit dug into the ground. Beyond the spot for their tent was an incline that lead down to a wide but shallow stream. There were trees after trees, blocking the late afternoon sun.
Pam walked over the incline and turned back to Jim. “Wow. I didn’t realize how pretty this place was.”
“It really is.” His brain struggled to place when he was here before. It was both familiar and strange. “How’d you find this place?”
“I asked your mom. She mentioned how much you loved to camp here when you were a kid. And I haven’t heard you talk about it much since I've known you, so I thought to sort of recreate some….” She trailed off, tucking her hair behind her ear. Jim knew she did that when nervous. About what, was something he wanted to know.
He pulled her into a hug. “Thank you.”
Her voice was muffled against his shirt. “I wanted to do something special for your birthday. But since it’s in the middle of next week, I thought to celebrate it a little early.” He didn’t have a chance to say anything before she continued, “I’m sorry. I should have asked if you even wanted to go camping.”
“Hey, look at me.” His hands gripped her arms firmly, “Thank you for planning this. I’d forgotten about this place. But I have fond memories of it. Now I have you here too.”
Grateful that he understood what she was trying to do in planning this trip, she smiled at him. “That’s my thought too. Now get working, Halpert. The tent isn’t going to set itself up!”
He pretended a long-suffering sigh which turned into a grin when she pulled his head down and kissed him.
They worked in tandem, him setting up the two-person tent and she putting their sleeping bags and pillows into the tent. He started the fire in the pit with her teasing that he was the “Fire guy” and singing that Billy Joel song. He threatened to find a spider and toss it on her later. They called a truce.
When they were done with setting up the campsite, they ambled down the stream and walked along it. They discovered that there were other campers along way, but because of the trees, each campsite was almost hidden from one another.
Further down the stream was a watering hole where it seemed most of the campers gathered for a swim. Kids were happily jumping off the make-shift rope-swing into the water. Parents sat on the rocky shores, talking amongst themselves and keeping an eye on their children. Jim could easily see him and Pam bringing their kids to this spot every summer. Pam had the same picture in her mind. Neither said anything to the other.
The skies had already turned a purple hue by the time they headed back to their camp.
It was different spending their Friday night camping and Jim told Pam so. “A good kind of different.” He looked across at his girlfriend who was focused on making sure the marshmallow didn’t burn. The fire was reflected in her eyes and its light turned her skin golden and warm. As if feeling his gaze on her, she smiled absently over at him.
It’s been three months since their first first date. It was not the first time, however, that he wondered what he would be doing now if he hadn’t rushed back to her from New York that day. Would he be living another life away from Scranton right now? With someone who wasn’t her? If instead of sitting here with her in the middle of nowhere, would he be in some posh bar mingling with people he wouldn’t care about?
Her delighted “yay” knocked him out of his thoughts.
“Look,” she proudly showed him the marshmallow. “I’ve perfected this roasting thing!” She assembled the chocolate and the graham crackers as she talked and offered the finished concoction to him. “And here is your birthday s’more!”
His hand circled her wrist and pulled her to him. Looking at her upturned face, he thought that it was a very good thing he didn’t have a chance to find out what he would be doing if he wasn’t here with her. When his lips touched hers and she sighed, he hoped that he would never have to find out.
There was a slight chill in the air when she settled against him. Both were flushed with a warmth that had very little to do with the crackling fire in front of them. He ate the now cooled s’more and gave her a sticky kiss on the cheek in lieu of a thank-you. She laughed as she wiped her face.
They sat in companionable silence for a moment until she spoke up. “Was this very different from your other birthdays?”
“Yup…instead of a cake, I have a birthday s’more.”
“Is it different from…your last birthday?” If Pam was honest with herself, she would have admitted that this was part of the surprise camping trip. While Jim never gave her a reason to think he was anything but happy with her (the opposite, in fact), she still had pockets of insecurity. Like when she sometimes caught him looking intently at her. It made her wonder if he was thinking of a life he could have had. A better job, a better city…a different life. A more exciting one. She wished that the girl who ran through hot coals many months ago would reappear and ask him. Since she couldn’t compete with that life, she wanted to be different and showed him that this life was…a good kind of different.
“My last birthday?” He asked.
She twisted a bit in his arms so she could see his face. Waited.
“It is…different.”
“Okay,” she nodded. Different is good, she reasoned. She didn’t need to know more than that.
“It was nothing like this though.” He tipped her chin up so that she was looking at him again. “Nothing was ever like this.”
She knew what he meant. It made her feel silly for needing to hear those words from him. She sat up straighter. “Me too.”
The rain chose that moment to start falling, making them scramble to get all their food into the car and run back into the dry safety of the tent.
He approved of her choice of the two-person sleeping bag, citing body heat as crucial in survival tactics. When she mocked him as having been around Dwight too long, he called foul, “It’s supposed to be my birthday trip. Would you please stop bringing his name up?”
After changing into their night clothes and getting into the sleeping bags, Jim reached out and turned off the little lantern, plunging them into complete darkness. The rhythmic raindrops on their tent cocooned them in their own private world.
“I love the rain.” She murmured against him. They were lying on their sides, facing each other without being able to actually see the other.
“I know.” His hand trailed down her side.
She scooted closer. “This is fun.”
His hand moved down to cup her bottom, making her laugh. “I agree.”
Her cool hand snaked beneath his t-shirt and caressed his bare skin, making him shudder.
“Pam…” His tongue was warm as it slipped pass her lips. She made a hum of contentment when he turned her onto her back and covered her fully. He didn’t think he would ever get over the feeling of having her pliant in his arms like this.
The ground was firm and soft at her back and him solid on top her. The rain beating down outside seemed to echo the rapid beat of her heart when he placed his hand firmly over her breast, thumb teasing the nipple.
“Jim….your shirt….”
He helped her get his shirt off and then hers. Their pants were quickly divested too, leaving them skin to skin. He traced her skin in the dark, relishing the way she trembled slightly at each place he touched. Not being able to see each other amplified each touch, each sound….each taste.
She arched when his mouth closed over her breast while one of his hands covered the other one. Her hand fumbled in the dark, finding his free hand and guiding it to her center. Knowing what she wanted, he plunge a finger into her, groaning against her breast when he found her wet. A second finger joined the first as his thumb flicked on that bundle of nerves, eliciting a low moan from her that was almost lost among the sound of the falling rain. But he heard it and doubled his efforts to bring her to the peak.
Not wanting to wait anymore, Pam reached down and softly grasped him in her hand. His mouth released her breast and he made a strangled sound when her hand held him more firmly, stroking up and down. She loved feeling how hard he was in her hand, loving that she and she alone had this kind of effect on him. He made sure that she knew that fact early in their relationship, wanting her to never doubt the effect she had on him.
He leaned up, “Wait…I need to get the…oh god…” Her fingers brushed over his tip. He silently cursed the fact it was too dark for him to see where he had thrown his wallet earlier.
Her hand moved again, this time lower. He placed a smacking kiss on her lips, but it landed clumsily on her cheek, making her giggle. “Let me grab the…”
“It’s okay….I’m…we don’t need it.”
No more word was necessary.
He lifted her bottom and slid inside her. Warm and tight and perfect.
“Fuck…” His word was soft against the side of her neck. He swore that nothing had ever felt this good, when it was just the two of them like this. Each of her breathy moans made him greedy, frantic. Urging him to withdraw and thrust back in, losing himself inside this one woman he never wanted to leave.
His lips skimmed their way up to hers and he kissed her hard. Her hands clutched his back as her nails formed crescents on his skin.
“Jim…I need….”
He understood.
A hand between their joined bodies.
Her shout was muffled by his lips.
His groan was music to her ears.
He was deep…deeper…until both of them tumbled over the edge.
Later, when their bodies cooled and they were on the verge of sleep, sated and happy, Jim kissed her temple. “Best birthday ever.”
Neither could stop the smiles plastered on their faces.
